Saints Row 2 'won't be bug free' admits dev

Volition, developer of upcoming open-world gangster epic Saints Row 2, has admitted that the game "won't be bug free" when it's released at some point this year.

Speaking at the unveiling of the game in London, Volition's Greg Donovan, producer on Saints Row 2, went on to say that he believes no game is ever released bug free, and detailed what the team was doing to ensure that Saints Row 2, which is coming out on Xbox 360 and PS3 sometime this year, will be as polished as possible,

He said: "It won't be bug free. I don't think any game is. But part of what we did was to start development early on. Our development schedule is all about getting the gameplay in and even though this (version of the game shown to press) is pre-alpha, we're all about iterating the gameplay now."

He added: "We have a full QA team on it, we've been able to undergo a massive engine overhaul."

The first Saints Row, on Xbox 360, suffered from some slowdown and tearing issues. When asked if the team had overcome these problems for the sequel, Donovan replied: "I think you're probably referring to some of the streaming stuff. That's no longer an issue now. We have flying in the game, aircraft, helicopters and it hasn't been an issue at all."

Donovan also revealed that the Xbox 360 was the lead platform for Saints Row 2, but stressed that there won't be any differences between the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game.

"We're still talking about DLC," he said. "I don't know whether or not it makes sense to differ that up a little bit but as far as feature parity, 360 and PS3 will be the same.

"We've been developing them simultaneously. Because we're using proprietary technology from Saints Row in that sense the 360 is the lead platform."